Netflix turned in another quarter of disappointing earnings (as expected); the company’s planned foray into gaming, meanwhile, highlights how digital businesses are different.
Philosophy and Power; Advertising, Targeting, and Tracking; The Real Winners
Advertising is on the verge of substantial changes, which will primarily benefit Apple and Google. Is it worth the tradeoff?
Instagram’s Evolution
Instagram’s shift away from being a photo-sharing app is very much inline with the service’s continuous evolution.
Amazon Buys MGM, The Streaming Opportunity, Anti-Monopoly vs. Antitrust
Amazon’s purchase of MGM makes sense strategically, but also points to bigger ambitions; it also highlights how a lot of antitrust talk is actually anti-monopoly.
Stripe’s Role, Competition and Differentiation, The Local News Opportunity
Differentiation can flow from the writer, but also from the subject. That is why the Substack model could help deliver the local news business model.
The FTC’s Google Documents, The Staff Memo, The Economists Memo
Revisiting the FTC’s decision in 2013 makes me doubtful that a case would have made much of a difference.
Spotify Stream On, Spotify’s Advertising Play, Additional Notes on Stream On
Spotify’s Stream On event advertised Spotify’s ambitions to become an Aggregator. The plans were impressive, but should Spotify go even further?
Mistakes and Memes
Information on the Internet is conveyed by memes, which can be anything and everything. The real world impacts are only now being understood.
Two Crises, Tech’s Costs, Looking Forward
Too much tech power has been an impending crisis for years; that doesn’t change just how costly the crisis was. Then again, centralization might yet win.
Internet 3.0 and the Beginning of (Tech) History
The actions taken by Big Tech have a resonance that goes beyond the context of domestic U.S. politics. Even if they were right, they will still push the world to Internet 3.0.